There is no warranty for this product you use it entirely at your own risk, if you only write to ram: files and your machine is not connected to other computers then usage will be pretty safe but no guarantee of this is given. A.F.P.L Ghostscript is unconnected with GNU Ghostscript!

PHOTO: novel created from a chapter of documentation with the novel feature. In the foreground is a long arm stapler which is required to staple the middle of the A4 pages. I tend to create 1 novel per chapter. The novel feature correctly deals with page numbers. If there are too many pages you need to subdivide the chapter into sub booklets otherwise the pages become difficult to fold collectively.

A4 pages with 4 pages per side, 2 quid coins showing it is double sided.	The A4 pages are cut in half, and the 2 halves are combined and stapled.
The end product A6 booklet.	Close up showing correctly numbered pages.

PHOTOS: making a titchy A6 booklet from a chapter of a document using the pamphlets feature. I use this feature for documents I am not sure about OR if there isnt much printer paper left. Here are commands for doing this, somedoc.pdf is the document and the booklet is physical pages 97 to 158 (pages 110 and 111 in the last photo are in fact physical pages 128 and 129 for this document):

assign gs: gs860:
makedir somedrive:temp_pamphlet
gs:bin/pamphlet somedoc.pdf 97 158 somedrive:temp_pamphlet/temp
execute ram:script1
execute ram:script2

This creates 3 PS documents in somedrive:temp_pamphlet/ which are temp_0.ps, temp_1.ps and temp_2.ps.

You then print temp_0.ps via gs, this does one side of the pages. Now depending on the printer you print the other sides by printing either temp_1.ps or temp_2.ps. You have to reinsert the pages the right way. You need to reverse the order of these pages and that gives you the pages in the first photo above. You then cut that column of pages in half, put one half above the other and go to the second photo. There is a lot of technique involved, the novels feature tends to be better quality as you dont have to cut the pages.

You need the 22nd May 2007 core and binary archives for this as the system has been enhanced as of 22nd May 2007 (today).

assign gs: gs860:
gs:lib/pdf2ps.amiga "" gs:examples/tiger.eps ram:tiger.ps
gs:lib/pdf2ps.amiga "" gs:examples/escher.ps ram:escher.ps
gs:lib/pdf2ps.amiga "" gs:examples/annots.pdf ram:annots.ps
c:join ram:tiger.ps ram:escher.ps ram:annots.ps as ram:various.ps
set GSFUNCTION T ; local variables so other shells can do other things.
set GSTHUMBNAIL 3
gs:lib/pdf2ps.amiga "" ram:various.ps ram:thumbnails.ps
unset GSTHUMBNAIL ; remove the settings so other things can be done,
unset GSFUNCTION
gs:bin/gs -sDEVICE=whoosh24 -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -r300 ram:various.ps

Useful Amiga links		www.ann.lu	www.amiga.com	Martin Blom's Linux-x-Amiga cross compilers
www.amiga.org		AmigaWorld.net	x86-AROS boot CD

          __________________
PS ----->|                  |---> print->|-->Turboprint: max 16777216 colours 24 bit
         |   This port of   |            |-->AmigaOS: max 4096 colours 12 bit
PDF ---->| Ghostscript 8.54 |            |-->inbuilt GS drivers (eg Samsung ML-4500)
         |                  |            |-->ijs (ixemul only)
         |                  |
         |                  |---> view->|-->6 Cyber viewers eg WB truecolor 24 bit
         |                  |           |-->6 AGA viewers eg 262144 colour HAM
         |                  |
         |__________________|---> convert->|-->jpeg
                                           |-->png
                                           |-->fax
                                           |-->bmp
                                           |-->PS
                                           |-->PDF
                                           |-->etc!

1. A fairly major fixing of Florian Zeillers GS510 turboprint device to make it fully compliant with GS8 onwards. To maximise the future of this device I split it up into 3 devices in line with other GS devices such as jpeg and png. My own viewers are also split into 3 devices. Florian's original device only understands Turboprint 7, whereas I have fixed it to understand Turboprint 3,4,5,6,7
2. Totally writing from scratch brand new viewers for both graphics cards and AGA. For AGA my work allows you to view PS in HAM8 , and for graphics cards to view PS in 24 bit colour eg on depth 24, 16 or 15 screens. I have written 6 different Cyber viewers and 6 different AGA viewers.
3. Totally written from scratch are 3 methods for printing via AmigaOS printer including 12 bit 4096 colour printing.
4. I fully debugged the printer driver for the Samsung ML-4500 600dpi b/w laser printer. (my own printer), at £75 its a real bargain. This is present as -sDEVICE=samsung_gdi. This driver isnt yet ported to GS854 though is in GS813.

INSTALLATION

A FULL NEW INSTALL IS REQUIRED FOR GS860: YOU CANNOT REUSE GS854, GS850, GS8 or GS813'S INSTALLS

Downloads

• gs860core.lha cross platform part of the program, 2nd March 2008
• gs860fonts.lha Fonts necessary to run GS860. Replace GS813's fonts with these as there is a subtle improvement. Same as GS850's fonts.
• gs860nofpu.lha 68020 no-fpu binary of GPL Ghostscript 8.60, current upload: April 2008, suitable for Morphos
• icon_scripts.lha point and click icon script interface to GS860.
• gs860_68020fpu.lha ALTERNATIVE 68020 fpu binary of GPL Ghostscript 8.60, current upload: 5th May 2008, DO NOT USE WITH Morphos
• gs860_68040fpu.lha ALTERNATIVE 68040 fpu binary of GPL Ghostscript 8.60, current upload: 5th May 2008, DO NOT USE WITH Morphos

Decompressions

STARTUP SUMMARY

This now can be done via the icon script startup, eg by double clicking it. The icon script install needs to be done first which just sets the env variable gs860 to the install directory.

ASSIGNS:

• GS860:
• GS:
• GS860Fonts:
• Ghostscript: assign for Turboprint PS:

SETTING UP gs: FOR script use

Put in the startup:

This is needed for the AmigaOS scripts in gs860:lib and gs860:bin to function,

i. GS860:

iii. GS860Fonts:

GS860 can share fonts with GS850, via:
eg.

STACK

USAGE:

• Turboprint usage
• AmigaOS printer usage
• Graphics card viewers (Cyber) usage
• Classic A1200 + A4000 AGA viewer usage
• Viewer usage tips
• Inbuilt Ghostscript printer drivers
• Convert PS and PDF to jpeg
• Further GS860 things
• Everything!
• Help function

setenv whooshzoomstep 1.05
setenv whooshzoomsubstep 1.01

Left-Shift+Up-Arrow	=> speed up zoom by a factor of 1.005 per key press
Left-Shift+Down-Arrow	=> slow down zoom by factor of 1.005
Left-Shift+Right-Arrow	=> speed up keyboard scroll by 1 pixel per key press
Left-Shift+Left-Arrow	=> slow down keyboard scroll by 1 pixel per key press

Right SHIFT		1
CAPSLOCK		2
CONTROL			3
Left ALT		4
Right ALT		5
Left Amiga		6
Right Amiga		7

setenv whooshqualifier 2

setenv whooshbeep 0

c:version gs

setenv whooshquiet 1

set whooshw 1 

set whooshinterleave 0 ; => non interleaved BitMaps

set whooshviewx 100 ; will restrict viewer window 
                    ; to width 100 pixels
set whooshviewy 200 ; will restrict viewer window 
                    ; to height 200 pixels

setenv whooshscreen magic_number

set whooshscreen magic_number 

HELP FUNCTION

GRAPHICS CARD VIEWERS USAGE

24 BIT RGB CYBER WB VIEWER

24 BIT RGB CYBER CUSTOM SCREEN VIEWER

256 SHADES OF GRAY CYBER WB VIEWER

256 SHADES OF GRAY CYBER CUSTOM SCREEN VIEWER

RAPID RENDER 1 BIT B/W CYBER WB VIEWER

RAPID RENDER 1 BIT B/W CYBER CUSTOM SCREEN VIEWER

CLASSIC A1200 + A4000 AGA VIEWER USAGE

• HAM8 Custom screen viewer
• 216 colour Custom screen viewer
• 256 shades of gray AGA custom screen viewer
• Rapid 1 bit b/w AGA custom screen viewer
• Colour WB AGA window viewer
• Rapid render 1 bit b/w WB AGA window viewer

HAM8 CUSTOM SCREEN AGA VIEWER

216 COLOUR CUSTOM SCREEN AGA VIEWER

256 SHADES OF GRAY CUSTOM SCREEN AGA VIEWER

RAPID RENDER RAPID VIEW 1 bit b/w CUSTOM SCREEN AGA VIEWER

COLOUR WB AGA WINDOW VIEWER

RAPID RENDER 1 BIT B/W WB AGA WINDOW VIEWER

THE GS> PROMPT

HOW TO USE THE VIEWER

• Normal Scroll
• Automatic Scrolling
• Naive Zoom in
• Hacked proper Zoom in

NORMAL VIEWER SCROLL

AUTOMATIC VIEWER SCROLL

NAIVE VIEWER ZOOM

HACKED PROPER ZOOM VIEWING

VIEWER USAGE TIPS

INBUILT GHOSTSCRIPT PRINTER DRIVERS

TURBOPRINT USAGE

TURBOPREFS COMMAND LINE

You may of course put eg -sDEVICE=tp1 if you want to do fast low colour printouts,

SETTING UP PS: FOR TURBOPRINT USE

MORPHOS users: CLICK for Turboprint GS510 things: http://www.irseesoft.de/ghostscript (:24.mar.2004.1050pm)

Morphos users: CLICK for extra magic required to make PS: function. :apparently "just drop the gs-handler in L: and place the PS mount file in devs:dosdrivers."

:Note that Turbo GS510 only understands Turboprint 7, whereas in my ports the Turboprint devices understand Turboprint 3,4,5,6,7: required careful surgery, I believe in backward and forward and sideways compatibility! If I didnt you wouldnt be able to use this port eg on Morphos or OS4 or on early A1200's,

Setting up PS: consists of 3 parts: handler + mountlist + assign:

1. The handler: you need to recycle the GS510/l/gs-handler thus:

makedir GS860:bin/l
copy GS510/l/gs-handler GS860:bin/l ; IYSWIM!

2. The mountlist: recycle the GS510 DEVS: mount file, to DEVS: not sure what the mountlist is called,

3. The assign: C. Driscoll tells me that Ghostscript: needs to be assigned in such a way that you get Ghostscript:l/gs-handler, thus you need eg:

assign Ghostscript: GS860:bin  ; startup each time you boot,

The Ghostscript: assign is only relevant to PS:, its not a GS860 thing but a PS: thing. C. Driscoll also says you can if you wish edit the mountlist to say L:gs-handler, however that gs-handler has Ghostscript: and Ghostscript:GS embedded in the code, so even if you edit the mountlist you will continue getting the Ghostscript: requester.

So the path of least resistance seems to be to leave the mountlist unchanged and follow steps 1, 2 and 3!

24 BIT RGB TURBOPRINTING

:all on one line, the -dFirstPage and -dLastPage tricks are only available for pdf docs, not for ps docs. annots.pdf is in GS860:examples/

256 SHADES OF GRAY TURBOPRINTING

Please note: for GS8 you have to use -sDEVICE=tp8g, with GS854 you can use either -sDEVICE=tp8 or -sDEVICE=tp8g

With GS854 the name has been changed to be easier to remember.

:all on one line, the -dFirstPage and -dLastPage tricks are only available for pdf docs, not for ps docs. annots.pdf is in GS860:examples/

RAPID 1 BIT B/W TURBOPRINTING

:all on one line, the -dFirstPage and -dLastPage tricks are only available for pdf docs, not for ps docs. annots.pdf is in GS860:examples/
This produces the fastest render, its good for text only documents. Its also good if the document only has solid regions of black on a white background (no grays or colours).
If the document has lots of delicate colours or gray then use tp24 or tp8

AmigaOS point and click icons

Download icon_scripts.lha, this presents icons for a point and click approach.

The following info is also in the archive.

make sure that your startup has:

assign gs: gs860:

The interface is via the visible icons only, the other scripts are auxiliary and not to be directly called.

double click the "view" icon and you get a requester for what document to view, that is then viewed.

double click convert_to_jpg and you input a ps or pdf document which is then converted to jpg in ram: eg if you select gs:examples/annots.pdf you get ram:annots1.jpg, ram:annots2.jpg ...

double click convert_to_pdf and you select a document to convert to a pdf in ram:

multi_convert_to_pdf allows you to multiselect from the requester which documents to convert. After conversion the documents are moved to the selected completion directory. DONT try this on gs:examples as it will move the examples out! This hasnt been fully tested, so please make a backup or test from ram.

you can customise these scripts to do other things.

they function via c:iconx it is possible you may need c:xicon instead for some systems.

AMIGAOS PRINTER USAGE

• 12 bit 4096 colour AmigaOS printing
• 256 shades of gray AmigaOS printing
• rapid render 1 bit b/w AmigaOS printing

12 BIT 4096 COLOUR AMIGAOS PRINTING

256 SHADES OF GRAY AMIGAOS PRINTING

NOTE: With GS8 you have to use -sDEVICE=whooshg, whereas with GS854 onwards you can use either -sDEVICE=whoosh8 or -sDEVICE=whooshg

RAPID RENDER 1 BIT B/W COLOUR AMIGAOS PRINTING

CONVERT PS AND PDF TO JPEG

It would do this at 100% quality because of the -dJPEGQ=100 switch. If you want 10% quality you use -dJPEGQ=10 instead etc.

NOTE that 100% quality is NOT the same as lossless jpeg as the latter is commercial and discouraged by the opensource community, instead if you want lossless images use -sDEVICE=png which is a free open standard (I hope!).
-sDEVICE=jpeg is useful for interfacing with web-browsers as jpegs can be viewed via browsers.
So you can make a PS page available for a browser by converting it to jpeg via -sDEVICE=jpeg and then linking to this in the html.

General info about the command line: all Ghostscript arguments such as -dJPEGQ are CASE SENSITIVE ie -dJPEGQ=20 is GOOD, but -djpegq=20 is WRONG and -DJPEGQ=20 is WRONG. Also the order of the args MATTERS, Ghostscript processes the arguments left to right, some orderings are good and some are not! The above presentation of arguments is correct and other presentations are correct. This is different from a lot of Unix programs where arguments can be presented in any order.

I find its best to put the device as the first arg and right at the end to put the output file followed by the input files:

gs -sDEVICE=????? ...... -sOutputFile=???? infile1 infile2 infile3

From left to right the args of the jpeg example are:

1. first gs:bin/gs is the path to the Ghostscript binary, on *nix probably just gs ok

2. -sDEVICE=jpeg is the jpeg device ie convert documents to jpeg, for list of devices: gs:bin/gs -h ok

3. -r150 is the resolution in dpi (dots per inch, ie pixels per 2.54cm, computer monitor is approx -r100), ok

4. -dJPEGQ=100 is a device specific argument specific to -sDEVICE=jpeg explained above, ok

5. -dNOPAUSE means Ghostscript shouldnt pause annoyingly between pages, ALWAYS do this ok

6. -dBATCH means Ghostscript should exit on completion, ALWAYS do this ok

7. -sOutputFile=some_path/somefile%d means the output file, ok

8. %d means create an output file for each page substituting %d by the pagenumber. ok

9. And lastly are presented a list of PS or PDF files to convert. ok

Note that this website is about the 68k-AmigaOS Ghostscript binary available from this webpage, however various info will apply to all Ghostscripts. Many things are only applicable to this specific version of Ghostscript, namely things I coded myself. Today most people use 68k-AmigaOS in emulated form, eg for PC's there is a commercial product called "Amiga Forever" which is an Amiga emulator for PCs. Via that people with PCs can use this port. There is also an excellent free Amiga Emulator for PCs called WinUAE but you need to supply the ROM image and system disk images. People also can use the binary here via the AmigaOne (A1) and Morphos on Pegasos which are both PPC versions of AmigaOS with integrated 68k-AmigaOS emulators. There is also the AROS reimplementation of AmigaOS for PCs, I dont know if they have a 68k-emulator yet, I think that is one of their projects. I did a version of the program for AROS some years ago but many features have been implemented since then and I havent done any further builds for AROS.
2006.8.1: someone has pointed out that the original command I gave created a 72dpi jpeg which was a bit low res. So I've modified the shell command above to give the res, here at -r150, you can use any other number eg -r100 or -r300 etc.

USE GHOSTSCRIPT AS A TYPEWRITER!

topic originally from Thursday 8th May 2003 1115pm

For typing with GS you need some language layer otherwise its a real pain, thus use my own language layer: type.ps.

The problem is that GS uses a coordinate system with the wrong origin + wrong axes directions wrong measure etc. Thus to make it user friendly use the above file.

All commands beginning with Upper case initial letter are my own commands, so if you look inside the above file anything beginning with lower case is an inbuilt PS command eg show is the inbuilt PS command for printing text.

Begin by calling gs as usual with the above file as input, eg

gs -sDEVICE=whoosh24 -dNOPAUSE -r30 type.ps

This will take you immediately to the GS> prompt.

Now try this:

GS> (Hello world!)show
GS> (this is a test)show
GS> Newline
GS> 255 255 0 Square
GS> (see a yellow square?)show
GS> 0 255 255 Square 
GS> Newline (:cyan square)show
GS> Newline
GS> /NimbusSanL-Regu Font
GS> (:new font being set)show
GS> 5 Fontsize /NimbusSanL-Regu Font
GS> Newline
GS> (Big 5cm!)show
GS> Newline
GS> 1 Fontsize /NimbusSanL-Regu Font
GS> (smaller font!, see gs8data:fontmap.gs)show
GS> Newline
GS> (for all available fonts)show
GS> Print

You can do this also for any GS device, whenever you enter Print it will print the current stuff to the printer or other device.

gs -sDEVICE=anydevice -dNOPAUSE type.ps

This can also be done from a pre-made file, eg:

gs_000 -sDEVICE=somedevice type.ps

Then at the GS> prompt type:

GS> (typetest) run Where the file typetest contains the above commands, this makes life a lot easier to debug the PS file. You can also add your own language layer to extend type.ps.

You can do all this directly with PS but its a lot of work as eg the units of measurement are 1/72 inch,

Also PS does rgb colours with floating point values between 0 and 1 for each component. type.ps retargets this to the traditional computer 0-255 values!

type.ps keeps track of vertical position on the page, the Newline procedure resets the position to the start of the next line.

By using my type.ps layer file, you have user friendly usage of GS for text using all GS fonts in gs8data:fontmap.gs and any other ps fonts.

Thus you can write a letter with commercial quality printout just armed with GS and type.ps

Handwritten Postscript generally requires debugging eg one line may collide with another or run off the edge. eg the above example had some bugs, now removed!

Also with each page printed everything gets reset, thus my Print procedure reinitializes the page each time, otherwise when you try a second page it will be just blank!

Really using the GS> prompt is just like using the BASIC language on eg a BBC computer of yester-year.

A procedure for automatically doing newlines would be

/Line {show Newline} def,

you could feed this new procedure in at the GS> and immediately start using it.

USE GHOSTSCRIPT AS A CALCULATOR:

gs_000

To multiply eg 12.3 x 13.8:

GS> 12.3 13.8 mul ==

To add use add, likewise use sub, div,

To do (2 + 3)/4:

GS> 2 3 add 4 div ==

GS is a stack machine, if we present it with a number, it pushes it onto the stack. When we present it with an operator eg add it pops the operands from the stack, applies the operator and pushes the answer onto the stack. To pop + view the top thing on the stack you type ==. So eg to add 1 2 3 4 5 we could type:

GS> 1 2 3 4 5 add add add add == If the GS prompt says eg GS> < 4 > that means there are 4 unpopped things on the stack. Its useful for debugging.

FURTHER GS8 THINGS

EVERYTHING!

COMMENTS

• PS vs HTML!
• 3 or 4 ways to print

3 or 4 WAYS TO PRINT

1. Turboprint
   If your printer is supported by Turboprint then this is the recommended path
2. Inbuilt Ghostscript printer drivers.
   My printer Samsung ML-4500 b/w 600dpi laser is supported by neither Turboprint nor AmigaOS. This means the only way to print with it on an Amiga is via Ghostscript, this is actually how this port begun. I had to download the Ghostscript c-source driver from a Linux site, then spend a week or 2 debugging it finally I could print! This is the samsung_gdi driver in the device list.
3. AmigaOS printer driver
   If your printer has an AmigaOS driver (many dont) then this is another method.
4. ijs
   Available in the ixemul recompile which isnt uploaded yet, (needs a lot of explaining how to set things up for ixemul). -sDEVICE=ijs is an impenetrably complicated method. Its clever but usage is near impossible to understand, I've made some 3 attempts to understand it and given up. Anyway this method allows you to download and use external drivers from the internet and use them with GS8. I think Hewlett-Packard are involved with the concept :I think ijs is one of those a-bit-too-clever ideas! If you get too clever with computers you end up with something which is too difficult to use, L-unix anybody??

PS VS HTML

• PS is absolute.
• HTML is relative.

1. 1. HTML render is fast,
2. 2. Links!: HTML is interactive via its links PS is not.

THE AGA BLITTER BUGS PROBLEM

PROBLEMS?

1. Study http://www.whoosh777.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/fix.html, download the latest version of the program if any
2. If the problem persists email me:

THE AGA SetRGB32CM() BUG PROBLEM

ENV VARIABLES REFERENCE

Miscellaneous downloads

When gs encounters an error it tells you the file position, however what you really want is the line number, so there is now a small program to convert file position to line number in gs860nofpu.lha

Example usage:

gs:bin/pos_to_line examples/tiger.eps 1000

:would tell you the line number of file position 1000 in tiger.eps,

To get usage info type:

gs:bin/pos_to_line

or

gs:bin/pos_to_line ?

gs:bin/pos_to_line examples/tiger.eps 1000 1200

:would print out all text from file position 1000 to 2000 and then tell you the line number of file position 1000 in tiger.eps, eg when I tried it, it does:

/_i currentflat def
/i {dup 0 eq {pop _i} if setflat} bdef
/j /setlinejoin ldef
/J /setlinecap ldef
/M /setmiterlimit ldef
/w /setlinewidth ldef
% path construction operators
/_R {.25 sub round

LINENO = 30

Michael Merkel's GS8GUI

Michael Merkel who was one of the original betatesters for the Turboprint part of the port has written a GUI frontend for the ports of GS I have done.

Its an independent project and this is the URL.

Printing Billboards

This requires the 11th May 2007 binary archive or later.

The current gs860core.lha as of today (17th July 2005) now contains pdf2ps.amiga.

Lets say you want to convert gs:examples/annots.pdf page 2 to 3 x magnification billboard:

Here is how you would do it just to view the parts. To actually print the frames you need to edit gs:bin/view1 and uncomment eg the turboprint command: a row by row column of frames will then be generated by your printer starting with the lowest row and working left to right. You then cut the right + top edges of each frame and glue consecutive frames together. In the "billboard" command below, the first argument is args in "" for GS: we filter out just page 2 here, the next arg is the document, then is the magnification factor: here its 3, then a script file which will be generated (output) ram:script0, then a temporary filename prefix here hd:temp, scratch files hd:temp#? will be generated by the mechanism, then a script file you supply which will view/print the resulting PS files: gs:bin/view1 (ready made one), then the horizontal overlap factor: here its 4 meaning each consecutive horizontal page overlaps with 1/4 of its predecssor. Lastly the vertical overlap factor here 8: vertically frames overlap by 1/8.

:if there are gaps between consecutive frames reduce these 2 parameters till consecutive frames match with absolute precision: should be pixel perfect.

If you run gs:bin/billboard without args it will give you usage info, x0 and y0 define the overlap factors of 1/x0 and 1/y0.

Note that if you dont filter out one page via -dFirstPage and -dLastPage you will get a billboard for every page of the document using a square mile of paper: BEWARE!

(A)
assign gs: gs860:
delete hd:temp#?
gs:bin/billboard "-dFirstPage=2 -dLastPage=2" gs:examples/annots.pdf 3 ram:script0 hd:temp gs:bin/view1 4 8
; :all on one line,
; ie without paths its:
;; billboard "-dFirstPage=2 -dLastPage=2" annots.pdf 3 script0 temp gs:bin/view1 4 8
execute ram:script0
In gs:bin/view1 you can uncomment a line to print the billboard via Turboprint. You can also comment out the line that deletes the images after printing.
You can use this system to generate huge photograph images from an a4 printer: combining the resulting a4 sub-images will be quite a lot of effort.

Printing Novels

This requires the 11th May 2007 binary archive or later.

This puts 2 PDF document pages per physical page side in such a way that when you print on both sides you can column up the pages, fold in half and obtain the correctly numbered pages of a novel. For example a 9 page document is prints as:
(1)[ 2 : . ]
(3)[ 4 : 9 ]
(5)[ 6 : 7 ](8)

As with pamphlets you can use the novel feature several times and then combine these into a tome.

Example: say you want to put pages 90 to 210 of doc.pdf into a novel.

This system ONLY functions for pdf's. To do this with a PS document you need to convert it to PDF first via GS860:lib/ps2pdf.amiga which is Ghostscript's PDF distiller script.

Here is how you now convert pages 90 to 210 of doc.pdf to 2 x 1 x 2 novel. You need a temporary file prefix eg hd:temp or ram:temp (if you have lots of memory). The temp file prefix hd:temp, 90 and 210 are then entered into the following commands. WARNING: all files with prefix hd:temp will be deleted at the start!

(A)
assign gs: gs860:
delete hd:temp#?
gs:bin/novel doc.pdf 90 210 hd:temp
execute ram:script1
execute ram:script2
gs -sDEVICE=???? ?????? hd:temp_0.ps
;WAIT FOR PAPER TO COOL DOWN, EG WAVE PAPER IN THE AIR.
;NOW REINSERT PRINTOUT,
;IF IN FORWARDS ORDER UNCOMMENT THIS:
;gs -sDEVICE=???? ?????? hd:temp_1.ps
;IF IN REVERSE ORDER UNCOMMENT THIS:
;gs -sDEVICE=???? ?????? hd:temp_2.ps
;if unsure whether hd:temp_1.ps or hd:temp_2.ps then view the first
;page of say hd:temp_1.ps with the -sDEVICE=whoosh24 viewer and
;see if it matches the first page to be printed. If it matches now
;print hd:temp_1.ps else print hd:temp_2.ps. Stick a note on the
;printer saying which option to use.

If you run gs:bin/novel with too few args eg no args it will give you usage info.

The above commands will generate hd:temp_0.ps, hd:temp_1.ps and hd:temp_2.ps these are 3 PS files. First print hd:temp_0.ps with GS. This generates the upper faces of the novel. Once printed you have to re-insert these into the printer. If these are in forwards order now print hd:temp_1.ps and if in reverse order print hd:temp_2.ps. Make sure the pages arent upside down!

This will print the lower faces on the same pages.

IMPORTANT: make sure to wait till the pages have cooled down before reinserting. Otherwise the printer will lose its grip and the printout could be wrongly positioned.

Experiment with say 20 pages of a document. If you only want one of forwards or reverse ordering of the second print then comment out the appropriate line of gs:bin/script3n

My printer has 2 output schemes which create opposite out-tray orderings of the print.

When both sides are printed you may need to do a final reversing of page order. I probably need to improve the scheme sometime so that a final reversing isnt necessary.

If you arent sure, instead of printing view temp_0.ps, temp_1.ps and temp_2.ps with whoosh24 and note the page numbering, then figure out from this how to do the reinsertion.

You can create commercial quality booklets with this scheme.

Printing Pamphlets and Books

This requires the 11th May 2007 binary archive or later.

This puts 4 pages per page side in such a way that if you cut the pages in half horizontally, place one half column above/below the other and remove one possibly blank page at the top, staple together you get a pamphlet with correctly sequenced page numbers.

For example the first printout of a 30 page document will have the following page number layout:
2
10 23

Later in phase 2 of the procedure under the 2 will be 1, under the 10 9, under 23 24, and nothing under the empty subframe. ("Notes" candidate!)

The second printout will look like:
4 29
12 21

Later under 4 + 29 + 12 + 21 will be 3 + 30 + 11 + 22 respectively. You dont want to have to do this by hand as its really painful!

BTW I've been thinking about this idea ever since GS8, but couldnt see how to do it then when looking at something Christoph Poelzl asked I suddenly made a breakthrough.

There is quite a bit of puzzle element to the procedure, eg when I first tried it one side was upside down, then when I got it the right way round I was looking at the wrong side of the page, things only make sense if you look at the correct side!

You can also publish your own book by dividing the book into pamphlets and then stitching the pamphlets together into a book.

The pamphlet scheme has some sort of physical limit for convenient browsing, to create a tome you need lots of pamphlets. I think the professionals stitch with string and dont use staples. Staples are for amateurs like me. The problem with staples is though they look bright and shiny today in 10 years time they will have corroded. That shiny lustre will have flaked off causing a health hazard.

Example: say you want to put pages 90 to 210 of doc.pdf into a pamphlet. You can determine the page count of a document via the number GS -sDEVICE=whoosh24 says when you view the document. You can make a tome by splitting the document into several pamphlets.

This system ONLY functions for pdf's. To do this with a PS document you need to convert it to PDF first via GS860:lib/ps2pdf.amiga which is Ghostscript's PDF distiller script.

Here is how you now convert pages 90 to 210 of doc.pdf to 2 x 2 x 2 pamphlet. You need a temporary file prefix eg hd:temp or ram:temp if you have enough ram. The temp file prefix hd:temp and 90 and 210 are then entered into the following commands. WARNING: all files with prefix hd:temp will be deleted at the start!

(A)
assign gs: gs860:
delete hd:temp#?
gs:bin/pamphlet doc.pdf 90 210 hd:temp
execute ram:script1
execute ram:script2
gs -sDEVICE=???? ?????? hd:temp_0.ps
;WAIT FOR PAPER TO COOL DOWN, EG WAVE PAPER IN THE AIR.
;NOW REINSERT PRINTOUT.
;IF IN FORWARDS ORDER UNCOMMENT THIS:
;gs -sDEVICE=???? ?????? hd:temp_1.ps
;IF IN REVERSE ORDER UNCOMMENT THIS:
;gs -sDEVICE=???? ?????? hd:temp_2.ps
;if unsure whether hd:temp_1.ps or hd:temp_2.ps then view the first
;page of say hd:temp_1.ps with the -sDEVICE=whoosh24 viewer and
;see if it matches the first page to be printed. If it matches now
;print hd:temp_1.ps else print hd:temp_2.ps. Stick a note on the
;printer saying which option to use.

If you run gs:bin/pamphlet with too few args eg no args it will give you usage info.

The above commands will generate hd:temp_0.ps hd:temp_1.ps and hd:temp_2.ps these are 3 PS files. First print hd:temp_0.ps with GS. This generates the upper faces of the pamphlet. Once printed you have to re-insert these into the printer. If the reinsertion is in forwards order you now print hd:temp_1.ps and if in reverse order hd:temp_2.ps.

The first time you try this everything will go wrong.

The second print prints the lower faces on the same pages.

IMPORTANT: make sure to wait till the pages have cooled down before reinserting. Otherwise the printer will lose its grip and the printout could be wrongly positioned.

If you comment out one of the 2 commands in gs:bin/script3 you can make only one of the 2 possibilities of forwards versus reverse happen.

My printer has 2 output schemes which create opposite out-tray orderings of the print: I move a lever up or down, if the lever is down the pages leave the printer to the floor (unlimited capacity) and when its up they accumulate within the printer. :both schemes are stacks but one is a face down stack and the other a face up stack.

This scheme is complicated but thats because the problem itself is geometrically quite complicated.

Creating pamphlets is very satisfying.

2 sided printout of Books

This requires the 11th May 2007 binary archive or later.

This takes an input PDF document doc.pdf, and outputs 3 PS documents hd:temp_0.ps, hd:temp_1.ps and hd:temp_2.ps.

The odd pages are in hd:temp_0.ps and the even pages plus maybe a parity synchronising blank page in hd:temp_1.ps as well as in hd:temp_2.ps. hd:temp_1.ps contains the even pages in ascending order and hd:temp_2.ps in descending order.

So you print hd:temp_0.ps then reinsert the pages and print either hd:temp_1.ps or hd:temp_2.ps to get a 2 sided printout.

(You can convert these 2 PS files to PDF via GS860:lib/ps2pdf.amiga, :this script is self documenting)

Example: say you want to print pages 90 to 210 of doc.pdf thus, Note you can find the number of pages in a PDF document by running GS -sDEVICE=whoosh24 and noting the number at the start.

This system ONLY functions for pdf's. To do this with a PS document you need to convert it to PDF first via GS:lib/ps2pdf.amiga which is Ghostscript's PDF distiller script.

Here is how you now convert pages 90 to 210 of doc.pdf to 2 x 1 x 1 book format. You will need to supply the first and last pages 90 and 210 as shown in the example below. You also need a temporary file prefix eg hd:temp. (I use ram:temp). The temp file prefix hd:temp and 90 and 210 are then entered into the following commands. WARNING: all files with prefix hd:temp will be deleted at the start!

(A)
assign gs: gs860:
delete hd:temp#?
gs:bin/book doc.pdf 90 210 hd:temp
execute ram:script1
execute ram:script2
gs -sDEVICE=???? ?????? hd:temp_0.ps
;WAIT FOR PAPER TO COOL DOWN, EG WAVE PAPER IN THE AIR.
;ALSO GOOD IDEA TO FLATTEN THE PAPER.
;NOW REINSERT PRINTOUT, IF IN FORWARDS ORDER UNCOMMENT THIS:
;gs -sDEVICE=???? ?????? hd:temp_1.ps
;IF IN REVERSE ORDER UNCOMMENT THIS:
;gs -sDEVICE=???? ?????? hd:temp_2.ps
;if unsure whether hd:temp_1.ps or hd:temp_2.ps then view the first
;page of say hd:temp_1.ps with the -sDEVICE=whoosh24 viewer and
;see if it matches the first page to be printed. If it matches now
;print hd:temp_1.ps else print hd:temp_2.ps. Stick a note on the
;printer saying which option to use.

If you run gs:bin/book with too few args eg no args it will give you usage info.

The above commands will generate hd:temp_0.ps, hd:temp_1.ps and hd:temp_2.ps these are 3 PS files. First print hd:temp_0.ps with GS. This generates the odd numbered pages. Once printed you have to re-insert these into the printer, if they are in forwards order print hd:temp_1.ps and if in reverse order print hd:temp_2.ps

According to the number of pages there may be 1 synchronising blank page.

IMPORTANT: make sure to wait till the pages have cooled down before reinserting. Otherwise the printer will lose its grip and the printout could be wrongly positioned.

If you know you only need either forwards or reverse order you can comment out the appropriate line in gs:bin/script3b

Printing and viewing thumbnails

This requires the 22nd July 2005 binary or later.

Say you want to view/print doc.pdf in 4 x 4 thumbnails:
set GSFUNCTION T
set GSTHUMBNAIL 4
assign gs: gs860:
gs:lib/pdf2ps.amiga "" doc.pdf doc_thumbnails.ps
unset GSTHUMBNAIL
unset GSFUNCTION

This will generate doc_thumbnails.ps with 4 x 4 thumbnails, ie 16 pages per page.
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16

Pages 17, 18 etc will be thumbnailed to the next page etc, and you can have any number of pages eg 3 or 101.

eg you can store the 6 pages of GS860:examples/annots.pdf on one 3 x 3 thumbnail page!

Printing and viewing in landscape

This requires the 15th July 2005 binary or later. Usage has changed since 14th July.

In response to a request by Christoph Poelzl I've customised GS854 onwards so it now can print in landscape.

You need the current binary.

To print/view in landscape say annots.pdf,
assign gs: gs860:
set GSFUNCTION L
pdf2ps.amiga "" annots.pdf annots_landscape.ps
unset GSFUNCTION

This creates a landscape PS file eg annots_landscape.ps eg view it at low res:
gs -sDEVICE=whoosh24 -r50 -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE annots_landscape.ps

Converting problematic True Type fonts to PS fonts

WIARD Thomas (thomas dot wiard at radiofrance dot com) contacted me with the following problem which is about embedding problematic true type fonts in a document as PS fonts.

Various true type fonts (Trebuchet TimesNewRoman CourierNew and Arial) converted to PS fonts via ttf2pt13 from aminet and embedded in a document via Wordworth7 were not rendering "-". The "-" was being rendered with the default undefined symbol which is a square.

We established that the problem was not with GS.

Using nonembedded fonts rendered the - but didnt look the way intended.

The fonts needed to be converted to PS to use on Wordworth7 and to be embedded to preserve the look of the document eg when used with GS860.

All attempts to do this were not rendering the "-" for all the fonts, some attempts rendered the "-" for some of the fonts.

Eventually the following method was found by WIARD Thomas which is entirely via AmigaOS:

1) convert the .TTF font with 'ttf2pt1 -a -b' command into the .PFB file format
2) launch TypeSmith 2.5 software
3) import the .PFB file
4) at the question : "the font has a custom encoding. Load with TypeSmith encoding ?" reply YES
5) export the .PFB file
6) choose the parameter : encoding type - TypeSmith encoding

and then the .PFB file is correct !

Converting PDF and PS to ascii

Someone asked me how you do this, I've converted the ps2ascii script to AmigaOS for this. You use GS:lib/ps2ascii_amiga which is in gs860core.lha since 26th June 2005

Example: